Editing Minyan (section)

== Prayer and Torah Study in a Community ==
The Mishnah in Pirkei Avos states: "When ten people sit together and engage in Torah study, the Divine Presence rests among them, as it says, 'Elokim stands in the congregation of God.'" In Torah study with ten people together, they draw the Divine Presence to dwell among them and within them.

Similarly, there is virtue in communal prayer, derived from the verse in the Book of Iyov: "Behold, God is mighty and does not despise the mighty of heart." The Gemara in Berachos interprets: "From where do we know that the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not despise the prayer of the many? As it says: 'Behold, God is mighty and does not despise.'"

In communal prayer, they draw down the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which causes the prayer to be accepted without delays. Likewise, in communal Torah study, they draw down a very high level of holiness.

The reason for this is that a "community" comprising ten people includes all ten types of souls among the Jewish people (from "your heads, your tribes" to "the wood-chopper and the water-drawer"). This is the reason for the law of "public domain" (parhesia) regarding Shabbos and the like, where there is no distinction between ten or more.

In Igeres HaKodesh 23, the Alter Rebbe extols the virtue of Torah study and fulfillment of mitzvos with a minyan, and distinguishes between the Mishnah's statement regarding "ten who sit and engage in Torah," where "the Divine Presence rests upon them," and the Mishnah's statements about five, three, two, and even one, where it concerns establishing reward rather than the Divine Presence resting as with ten.

The Alter Rebbe writes: "I heard from my teachers that if one angel were to stand in the presence of ten Jews together, even if they are not speaking words of Torah, such dread and limitless fear would fall upon it from the Divine Presence that rests upon them, that it would be completely nullified from existence."

The Rebbe explained these words during a private audience with Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu that the Divine Presence resting upon ten Jews even when they are not studying Torah (because they are engaged in a mitzvah or similar), is due to the superiority of the Jewish people, which preceded and is above the Torah.

During the Ten Days of Repentance, the status of an individual who prays is like that of a community praying together. On the High Holidays, there is great importance to pray with a minyan, and even those who extend their prayers throughout the year and are present in a minyan only to fulfill communal obligations make an effort to pray with a minyan on the High Holidays. Similarly, there is great importance to recite the Hallel prayer on Rosh Chodesh and holidays with a community.

When a Chassid wrote to the Rebbe that since he studies Chassidus at length on Shabbos he begins to pray at 1:30 PM, the Rebbe sharply rejected this and instructed that one should begin praying when the community begins.

The Rebbe Rashab instructed R' Shmuel Yitzchak Reitzes to pray with three people—a "mezuman"—when it was not possible for him to pray with a minyan.
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